Nurses’ working motivation sources and related factors: A questionnaire survey

Abstract

Background : Motivation is an important issue for personnel management in health care settings, as it is related to both performance and intention to quit. Objectives : The study was aimed to determine nurses’ working motivation sources and related factors in hospitals. Design : Descriptive study. Settings : A state university hospital and a public hospital in Turkey. Participants : Two hundred and two nurses were randomly selected from each department in a university and in a public hospital. Methods : Data were collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Motivation Sources Inventory and were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results : Among five motivation sources, internal self-concept-based motivation was the highest and intrinsic process motivation was the lowest in nurses. There was a significant relation between scores of some motivation sources and managerial experience, income level, satisfaction from the unit, staff roles, and perception of work stress. Conclusions : Intrinsic process motivation, instrumental motivation, and external self-concept-based motivation sources may be improved to increase nurses’ total motivation.